Free the Maruti Suzuki autoworkers

The meeting will discuss the internationalist foundations of the struggle to release the framed-up Maruti Suzuki workers. The speeches will be given in Tamil and English and streamed live via Facebook on December 10 at 10am.

“There is no evidence to prove any charge”

The Indian autoworkers were framed up for challenging the class strategy of the Indian ruling elite, which is seeking to create the conditions for India to supplant China as the world’s principal cheap-labor hub.

What we have said:

The WSWS has covered the struggle of the Maruti Suzuki workers over many years, explaining its international significance and providing a political perspective to fight the workers’ persecution by Indian authorities.

Far from constituting a blow for justice, the court’s exoneration of 117 of the accused workers was a maneuver aimed at sustaining the legal vendetta against the principal accused—the leaders of the Maruti Suzuki Workers Union.

Police colluded with Maruti Suzuki, fabricated evidence, and systematically failed to carry out basic forensic tests as part of a bogus investigation aimed at framing up militant workers who challenged sweatshop conditions.

“The only ones who gain from war are those in power, the upper one percent”

Autoworkers at Ford’s Chicago Assembly Plant (CAP) and at Fiat Chrysler’s Warren Truck plant in suburban Detroit denounced the threat of nuclear war and signed a petition to demand the freedom of the framed-up Maruti Suzuki workers in India.

Background to a labor frame-up:

The life sentences an Indian judge imposed on 13 autoworkers last month were an act of class retribution for the leading role of Maruti Suzuki workers in opposing the sweatshop conditions that prevail across India.

While there is enormous sympathy for the framed-up workers, this week’s protests were a pale reflection of the support that could be mobilized were it not for the sabotage of India’s Stalinist parties and affiliated unions.

“We are determined this time to fight to the end”

By
Rajesh Tyagi,
22 September 2011

With the grass-root workers determined to win their rights, the carmaker MSI and the Congress Party government are looking to diffuse the crisis and subjugate the workers through the mediation of the Stalinist union leaders.